I have been critical of the OL this season for underperforming. They have turned it around the past two weeks. Glad to see the improvement and I wanted to acknowledge it.
Im not sure improving is the best way to describe as much as adapting to the change in scheme. I still saw plenty of struggle in man-on-man pure pass/run protection that led to MJ doing his bunny hop throws. How he still gets those off is a mystery. It is also why so many knock him for having a weak arm. The real improvement was in recognizing their limits and designing/calling plays to maximise those limits.
They definitely figured out some important things to allow them to run the ball better, but regardless of what it was, it shouldn't have taken them half of the season to do it.
T-Bob Hebert said on his postgame show that they switched to gap assignment blocking. Never played the line so I really don't know the difference, but he said in particular it really helped Shanahan.
Brad Davis got to know his players finally enough to help figure out how best to use them. Imagine if O had kept Russ Callaway? We'd be seeing the same offense Max led last year for the most part to greater success because they coups have built off it. O chasing the ghost of 2019 and his 4-3 were the final nails in the coffin. He had something working and chose to go with unknowns after losing out on Nielsen. Peetz and Daronte I think can be very good but these guys were given impossible tasks. One scholarship tight end, no real safeties, terrible OL, mediocre linebackers, etc. All the best players first or second year guys. We can't out physical or match guys athletically so moving guys and using motion, momentum, and angles to increase leverage has been a great asset, and using a real tight end in walk on Mashburn. Just took too long to find out. Cregg should have been gone years ago and Russ should have been kept for sustained continuity.
Funny, I’m a Decalus fan to a point…. Been around a long while… not sure he makes it to the NFL though…